Ramifications of a Thought
by E-Masquerade
Summary: As you find a stress releaser, will you also find a stress teaser?


The Ramifications of Thoughts

Reeve played absently on a worn piano, long slender fingers splaying over the ivory keys, tension soothing out of him in a delicious manner.  He sighed almost unnoticeably.

Elena neatly placed another stack of wood beside the huge fireplace, arranging it just so.  The willowy blond had surprised her companions with her penchant for neatness on several occasions, but it never failed to gratify them… most of them.  One person living up to his hair colour in temper and sloppiness was enough.  Another person exempt from the gray matter to which most persons are liable did not seem to thrill them.

Taking off the brown leather gloves that covered her hands, protecting them from splinters, Elena dug an ever-present lotion from her pocket and began to apply it to her wind-bitten and somewhat bleeding hands.  She listened to the jazz being emitted from the piano and smiled.  She wished that she had a tension soother like such.

The blond tossed away the thick, blond braid from her face absently, and hissed as she pressed too harshly on her skin.  The music faltered and stopped, and then there was deep voice, but soft, resonating around the room and playing with her ears.

"Come here, Elena."

Hands stilled their careful ministrations, and Elena looked up with a puzzled look on her face.  Reeve repeated the command,

"Come here."

Elena hesitated for a moment, puzzling over the ramifications of obeying such a request, and the need for it, and irrelevantly missing the music that had stopped.  Finally, she stepped forward and made her way those few steps to the carefully positioned piano and blinked down at the former Secretary of Urban Defense.

"Sit." Reeve had scooted to one end, she finally noticed, and she sat, pulling a face at him.  He ignored it and took the small bottle of lotion from her hand.  He squeezed out a small amount onto one of his fingertips and set the bottle aside before reaching for one of her hands.  

That Elena was surprised when Reeve began gently working the lotion into the skin between her fingertips was an understatement, and the cause wasn't the affects of melodrama.  Her pale eyebrows twitched, but she didn't speak, lest Cait Sith mistake her voice for the twittering of a mouse.  She noted somewhere in the recesses of her mind that he applied just enough, not so much that her hands were gooey.

"You always press down too hard on your hands.  It'll get them bleeding more that way."  The voice was slightly chastising, and warm breath swept over the pale hand within a larger grasp.  Elena paid no mind to the tone—the feeling over her hands being massaged like this brought a warm feeling puddling down into her stomach.  She caught herself before she rolled her dark azure eyes.  That was… pathetic.  Right?

The larger hands and fingers pulled away after a few minutes, having carefully applied lotion to every part of her hand.  It had stung at parts, of course, but only keeping within the careful limits of the minimum.  She smiled brightly at him, masking the confusing disappointment she felt at the absence of his touch.  It was, she persisted, something that was wholly and without a doubt pathetic.

Standing up, she thanked him chirpily.  He nodded his head and handed her the plastic bottle of lotion before turning back to the music.  As she was leaving, he heard the laughing words thrown back to him:

"I think Rude's down in the basement, but I'm not sure.  If I'm not up in a few hours, you guys man your weapons and come to my rescue."  A giggle followed that statement, and he could hear the bright grin still ringing in her words.

The music stopped again and Reeve turned towards her turned, retreating back.  "You've already torn the library apart, Elena.  I know that Hojo could rival even such a writer as Edgar Allen Poe in morbidity, but I did not think that you were fond of either."

Elena turned back to him with an impish smile dancing its mischievous feet on her mouth.  "I know, but I can't do much else right now.  Reading the bloody books worn seems to be my only hope of non-boredom."

The brunette ran his long fingers through thick hair, considering… he motioned to the worn, but still beautiful piano.  "I could teach you to play.  It's a good source for cutting off the treacherous thing."

Elena blinked at him, surprised, before reason reared its head.  "Probably, but there aren't two piano's here, and it won't always be empty then, when one of us needs and slash or wants it."

Reeve smiled.  "Perhaps.  But for now…" He let the words hang, and they looked to a former Turk for completion.  

Elena pursed her lips in thought before throwing her hands up in the air and traipsing back towards the instrument.  "Okay," she said as she took her former place next to him with a large smile, "How much do you think you're going to be able to teach me in so short a time?"

The only responses that Reeve gave were his actions.  

_______

Elena chewed on a full bottom lip exactly a fortnight later as she struggled over a song that Reeve was attempting to teach her.  The attempted was emphasized because her fingers kept going off on their own trail, not desiring in the least to follow a pre-designed path.  When she threw her hands up in exasperation, Reeve stood up.

"Here.  Slide to the middle of the bench."

She did so, wondering…  Reeve nudged her forward a small bit before seating himself behind her, his chest to her back, his legs on either side of hers, and his large hands correcting the position of hers, covering the smaller digits.  

Elena blinked and held herself back from stiffening with no petty strength.  She glanced warily over at Cait Sith and determined once more to keep her mouth shut.  

Reeve felt the surprise of his companion and wasn't surprised when she kept her mouth shut.  He was casually surprised himself, but he knew that Elena badly wanted to learn this piece, though it seemed that the necessary tools did not, and he wanted to hear her play it.

With a calm voice and soothing instructions, he began to teach her once again.  She forgot his nearness for a time, losing herself in the ecstasy of finally being able to play the music, if falteringly.  It was two patient hours later that she was finally able to play it fully, without Reeve's hands guiding her own, or his tolerating instructions.

"Ai!" Elena threw up her hands with a little cheer.  Reeve's firm arms and hands gripped around her waist, steadying them both as she unconsciously threw her small body backwards.  "Now isn't that the most horrid, but beautiful thing you've ever heard?"  She leaned back against his hard chest with a sigh.  It only took her a few moments to realize what she was doing, though, and then she lifted herself away.  _'Almost reluctantly,' _her mind jeered and snickered.    

Reeve smiled above her when she turned to face him with a bright grin on her face.  "Very good, Elena.  What would you like me to teach you next?"  Elena blinked up at him in surprise, her grin disappearing, and a look of dread replacing it.  

"Next?" She could have swatted herself for that word.

Reeve smirked.  "It wasn't that bad, Elena."  She frowned.

"Maybe not for you."  _'I personally would rather not be in this position again.'_

Reeve lifted an eyebrow, the smirk slowly leaving his face, and Elena's eyes widened to their maximum size when she realized that those words had broken away from only being thoughts and had instead gone running on a jeering escapade away from her, leaving her speechless.  The two stared at each other for a few long moments, and Elena uttered silent oaths against the delicacy of her hands touching the cold, in the end causing such uncomfortable situations.

"Oh." The soft word was warm against her upturned face.  "Do you mean this?"  Reeve cupped her chin and lowered his mouth to hers, taking advantage of the gasp that parted her lips.  The kiss was brief, but thorough, though Elena couldn't shake herself out of her stupefaction to respond to it.  Reeve pulled back and smiled at her.  "Goodnight Elena."

Elena watched him silently, his movements as graceful as Cait Siths' as he stood and walked towards the door, Cait Sith following lazily.

_______

Author's Note (s):  Countless thanks to Ethrial who has sat through many a rambling with me, and doesn't chew me out for sending her things that don't pertain to _Invincibility._

Frankly, I'm not sure what to think of this one.  I wanted to once again attempt a Reeve/Elena pairing (my other attempts being dismal failures).  Eh.  This one I'm not sure what to do with…

I would appreciate comments, and I sincerely don't mind flames.  -examines fire extinguisher-  They can just be taken as another form of helpfulness.  If said flames tell me what was wrong…


End file.
